jpny01

I would recommend that anyone who doesn't want to see a three-year old child subjected to homophobic violence by his father should steer clear of this. There was no reason for this to be in here and no excuse - there are other ways to address this that could have greater dramatic power without being that unpleasant. I'm not really seeing any counterbalancing positives. It's full of the usual stereotypes, the acting is uneven but worse than last week, and the production substandard, except the cinematography, which is good, although still over-ambitious.

I don't think this series knows what it wants to be - is it a comedy? drama? Campy? Serious?

It's worse than Amore. I know that sounds impossible, but at least Amore didn't pose as a comedy and expose us to a small child being subjected to homophobic violence by his father. I don't know what they were thinking, but I'm not watching something this revolting and unpleasant.

The plot moved about four times further than it did in the previous two episodes combined. Thank God they got out of the tourist town.

So, I'd noticed Tae was cute from the beginning, but he was looking really good to me in this ep - maybe it's the aggressive way he grabbed Nite, but he looked really handsome in this ep, and he has a nice figure, too.

I know on an intellectual level that this is bad. but I can't stop watching it. I think maybe it's because it has a non-awful and self-reliant female lead, which is rare, and I also thing Tae is beautiful and I'm shallow.

LOL, I was thinking that too. First question: "So you're the god of love, eh? Soooo, you must be really good at some things...." But yes, it's pretty amazing that Tae hasn't asked him a single question about anything supernatural. And about Tae being mad - Nite can't tell him what he knows about other people's feelings that he's aware of because he's a god - that's like getting mad at a psychologist for not telling you about his other patients.

OK, I'm mixed about this. The additonal ending made me cry, but I was also cringing a little - it was a bit cloying and cliche. I would have ended it at the dinner at mom's - for me that would have been perfect. The original needed a little more - maybe this gave me a tad too much more. But it's still much better this way, and the line down the hallway, but this time with no fear of catastrophe was a nice touch.

Rakuten Viki has the English translation at 97%. Can you guess which 3% is not done yet? Grrr.

I loved when it came out - I think it's my favorite Japanese BL and is toward the top of my list of all-time favorites - so I'm looking forward to the director's cut. Thank you for providing the time stamps.

I was so in love with Shiasu Jin after this - he was amazing.

Well, I understand the book has a sequel, so maybe there will be a second season?

I don't think that was queer denial, I think it's where they are in their journey right now, which includes their inability to overcome their internalized homophobia. I don't think that's intended as a static state, it's something that they need to overcome, and so I don't view it as problemmatic, as it is in so many BLs with the "I'm not gay, I only love _______" trope. Anyway, Emil & Benjo can't yet let go of societal expectations and the roles they're currently in, and their commitments to their families and girfriends, even after Emil's mother gives them her blessing. That's why they made a point of discussing what the Church thinks, to contrast that with Kelly.

I think Kelly's religiosity is to show that you can love and accept yourself and retain your faith, which is personal to you and not dependent on what the Church says - and despite how much more brutal and hard her life has been, and how much more difficult her path is (the need to transition), she succeeds entirely by herself, relying on her own strength and self love - she is who Emil and Benjo can be, but they are not yet able to understand her lesson and so they can't be together.

This to me was by far the most exciting portrayal of a trans character that's ever appeared in a BL. Instead of the usual pathetic, screeching comic-relief trope, we get LGBTQ+ Jesus who is essential to the story.

Wena's death was to show that life is transient and we should embrace love when we can, another lesson the boys weren't ready to absorb.

I appreciate all this, but I think you're really overstating the fluidity that studies have concluded - the vast majority of these find that around 90% of people in just about every country in every time period identify as exclusively heterosexual, and the remainder LGBTQ+ or N/A.

Universal fluidity may sound appealing, and there are unquestionably people that are genderfluid or have fluid sexuality, but the overwhelming majority are straight. The percentage of men who have had a homosexual experience is a few points higher than the number of gay & bisexual men, but there is no evidence for the level of fluidity you discuss above.

And in any case, if the level of fluidity in reality were anywhere near what it is in Thai high schools and universities as represented in BL, I would have had a lot more fun at that age.

Self-identity among adolescents and young adults is more fluid than for everyone else, as at that age we're all trying to figure ourselves out, and I wonder if that plays into the perception here because the MDL community skews heavily younger - or it that may make no difference at all.

Anyway, I agree with you that this is a remarkable drama, and I think you for your insights.

The problem with the trope is that it's nearly universal, although finally showing signs of weakening, especially in Filipino BL, which actually have LGBTQ+ identifying characters instead of both boys identifying as straight.

Therec homophobia in this - that it is not acceptable for men to seek to be and enjoy the passive role ("it's not gay unless you bottom"), and that's why the "top" can identify as straight, and the "bottom" is with disturbing regularity, forced initially, because sexual assault is somehow less bad than enjoying bottoming. In other words, if the trope were coming from a place of dreaming of a fluid world, I would accept it - but because the reason is inherently homophobic, I can't.

However, none of that really matters for this particular series, which is heavily layered with metaphor and deeper meanings - I'm not in the slightest bothered by their self-identification, as it's part of a their journey.

The trans character is there to show them someone who has had a far more difficult experience than they have, and even though self-actualization is far, far more difficult for her (she needs to transition), she accomplishes this, maintaining and integrating her faith, and by depending solely on her herself and her love for herself. She is undoubtedly the most powerful trans character to ever appear in a BL, almost an LGBTQ+ Jesus figure. It's so refreshing to see a strong trans character that's essential to the story rather than portrayed as pathetic and played for (profoundly unfunny) laughs.

The boys can't undertand or follow her example (yet) and so they were not ready to be together. They can't separate from what their faith thinks is right, what society thinks, the mechanics of being together, etc. and don't even seem to hear the tacit blessing Emil's mother gave to them. When they're ready to love and accept themselves, they'll be together.

Yes, I totally see that and agree. I think I might have said elsewhere that I thought this was soft-core porn for the first couple of episodes before it took a sharp turn into something completely different. (I was down for the soft-core porn, because these boys are hot). It's great to try new things, but you can try too many new things for too long.

The icing cracked me up - that's a new one.

Grandma may be faking the dementia and actually has an agenda - but that's probably too deep for this series. I don't know where they found the Tokyo actor, but they need to go back there and get a few more. If it weren't for him, I'd likely have dropped this show.

Here's my stab in the dark about what will happen. When Wade was doing his research about Luis, he found out JM disappeared around that time too and hasn't shared that. The whole moon thing will allow Wade to pull JM into the present where they'll happily ever after.

But more likely it will have a tragic ending. I'm prepared. But it better not be that JM almost gets killed but is saved, however later that day Wade gets run over by a truck.

That was a pretty good ending - I was worried because I thought the previous two episodes were kind of weak, but this one satisfied! Except for the the side couples, although I thought I might explode when the M & Oat thing happened. I've been in love with MD (Oat actor) since My Engineer, and I've been in love with Inspector M since the second I first saw him.

There were a few hand-waves to get through the plot which were silly and irritating (e.g. cloud storage? Really? Nobody checked until just now? ), but at least Por put away his teleportation device for this episode, so I can let it go. Directing and Cinematography were in top form this ep. It had an energy that's been a little lacking lately.

Best proposal ever.

One disappointment: Rung's motivation. I was hoping they wouldn't go there because it's kind of misogynistic.

But I think Mint deserves an extra hand of applause for her fantastic performance. And also Putter for the authenticity of his acting and the infectious innocent sweetness he was able to portray.

Yikes. There are some good things about this - the camera work is good, like the shot when when ML was talking to grandma. The acting is actually not bad - it's just that the poor actress who plays FM is stuck with an obnoxious character. The little brother is still so f#$%ing cute, and the ML is fairly charming.

The problem is the writing. I still find it hard to believe the homophobia - it doesn't make sense, and even if you follow her logic (as if being gay would be viewed as poorly as your parents running away from home), didn't merit the amount of crying when she was talking to the other gay guy. That was a long scene and she cried a lot. It didn't work. In this ep, again, long crying scene. She should have confronted ML first, especially after violating his privacy and reading his texts (although he deserved it for not password protecting his phone. Who does that? [I don't really think he deserved it. Don't hurt me.]), but what is she blaming herself for? It's clearly 90% his fault. OK, 80%. We have to knock off 10% for reading his texts.

If she was aware that she did the wrong thing with her brother, why didn't she fix it? Judging by the scenes from next week, she still hasn't then, either. None of this makes sense. If they don't give us some BL sweetness I'm going to be unhappy. And reuiniting in the last 3 minutes of the series and hugging doesn't count.

TBH, I'm not sure what the deeper meaning is regarding the Marcos era - maybe it's to point out that Benjo's gifts to Emil aren't really gifts, since the money used to buy them was stolen, maybe even specifically from Emil's family. I guess that could be extended to the macro level in Philippine societey. Regarding the parents, I suspect we'll see more of them in S2 and I'm guessing they will not be the heroes of the story. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

BTW, I didn't immediately see the connection to the Trans character either, until I thought about it for a while after reading your review, so communities like this are really good for everyone! Thanks again.

If you really don't see the difference between someone choosing a profession that he knew in advance paparazzi would be part of and someone who was just trying to save a cat and suddenly had his life invaded, I don't think we have enough common ground for a meaningful discussion.

Judging other cultures by the standards of your own is the what prejudice is. You are claiming not to be judging cultural pratices in the rest of the world, and then the very same paragraph, you do just that, except now you're trying to classify what you don't like as an aberration, because your own prejudices won't allow you to see it any other way. You have decided that sex is sacrosanctly private, nut not everyone views it that way.

The village chief knew what was going to happen in advance, was obviously amused, not upset, and he certainly didn't think there was reason to do anything about it, and it would have been simple for anyone to take very easy steps to ensure privacy, like for example not doing it on the ground floor of a building with numerous openings to the outside, or putting curtains over the gaps, which were not done because that's not how things are done there.

Yeah, you're right. I am actually being more selective than I used to be because of all this. Although I'm not sure that's a bad thing, lol, I was probably spending too much time watching BL instead of being a productive member of society.

I sometimes get gang-piled for criticizing a BL, with the reason given that I should support all BLs. NO, no I shoudn't. Blind support for all BLs is why so much absolute garbage is put out. If people reward good BL and punish bad BL, we'll get more good BL, Supply & Demand. Capitalism - there's no escape, but you can poke it towards the right direction sometimes.

That's a good point about Olan. It's usually the "top" that has to be fluid for homophobic reasons (you're not really gay unless you bottom, Sigh.) I hope they don't do it Olan. Your last sentence is quite valid - I suspect they'll fix it next ep.

Philippines, GSP. Thailand, I Told Sunset About You (by far). Vietnam: Nation's Brother, although I haven't seen too many VN BL. Taiwan: History 3, Trapped, Japan... tough. Probably Love-Life on the Line, Korea: Where Your Eyes Linger, and China: Addicted Heroin (the title is because the characters of the main couple's names put together means Heroin, and the more aggressive boy is clearly addicted to the other boy. There are sweet moments, but this is a little rougher than the average BL. And Timmy Xu is so beautiful it hurts to look at him (I believe this is the last real Chinese BL ever made). China would have spectacular BLs if they would just make them BLs and stop sanding them down to bromances.